Rumours suggest Apple's going to use the bits, bobs and licenses it acquired with the Beats purchase to launch a standalone music streaming service, one designed to compete with current stream king Spotify.

According to 9to5Mac, the service is being designed by Apple, so should be every bit as user-friendly and intuitive to use as the beloved iTunes software [coughs up half a lung], with the music content and branding pulled in from the Beats side.

The sources say Apple is planning to "deeply integrate" Beats within its current music and media apps, meaning there could be a Beats streaming tab sitting right there in future versions of iOS, iTunes, and even the Apple TV box -- with Apple's engineers said to be working on an Android app version of the service, too.

And as with Google's streaming service, Apple's Beats system is said to use cloud storage to let users upload their own collection of tracks to sit alongside streamed and purchased titles, with the option to pin tracks to devices for offline play. Just like Spotify and any other streaming service of the modern era.

The site's sources suggest it'll be a subscription service, costing around $7.99 per month. That's £7.99 a month, probably, given the way Apple's calculators seem to work. [9to5Mac]